All language subtitles for Abandoned.Engineering.S10E10.Blitz.Spirit.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-squalor_track3_[eng]

Narrator: An American war
machine given a second life.

Landing people on the moon
was an epic, defining moment

but it wasn't the
end of the mission.

An eerie shrine in Bulgaria that
offered the promise of immortality.

Children would
burst into tears at

the sight of the departed
father of their country.

An attack on a British city

designed to grind its
people into submission.

As much as 95% of its buildings
were damaged or destroyed.

And an Italian labour of love
born from the ashes of trauma.

This was architecture
intended to look forward

to a new kind of future.

Decaying relics,

decaying relics,

ruins of lost worlds,

sites haunted by the past,

their secrets waiting
to be revealed.

In California, usa,

lies a behemoth

with a story that
is out of this world.

Obviously we're in
San Francisco bay.

This is a bustling bay with lots
of industry, lots of naval facilities.

And then you come up and you
see this huge vision before you.

And there's no
mystery what this is.

It's an aircraft carrier.

It's imposing,

it's sleek,

it's deadly.

Inside, the vessel has
everything you'd expect to see

inside, the vessel has
everything you'd expect to see

onboard a us Navy ship.

Everywhere you turn

there are more dials, more
instruments, more screens.

And then there are rows
and rows of beds for the crew.

There's a kitchen,

there's just everything that
you need to survive and function.

It's essentially
a floating city.

This ship served a vital role in
the 20th century's greatest conflict,

but there are features that
reveal it also had another mission.

And that's this
airstream trailer,

parked conspicuously
with a presidential seal on it,

and that suggests that this aircraft
carrier had a very specific purpose

in addition to
its wartime roles.

Right now we're in what's
called 'primary flight',

right now we're in what's
called 'primary flight',

and it's basically
the same thing

as air-traffic controller
at a civilian airport.

The air boss would be
running the show up here,

directing flight operations
down the flight deck.

Retired us naval
officer Ron cappa

has inspected numerous aircraft
carriers over his military career.

This one, the USS
hornet, is a true legend.

The hornet was part
of a carrier task group

that was responsible for
launching many strikes.

The carrier could launch
planes about every 30 seconds.

They were the most modern
and the biggest of the time.

Construction begins
in August 1942

and it's finished
in August 1943.

It took just one year to build
this massive aircraft carrier.

When launched into action against
the axis powers in world war ii

when launched into action against
the axis powers in world war ii

she was a fearsome beast.

The ship was stocked
with some serious air power,

including air groups of fighter,
bomber and torpedo squadrons.

If you look at the USS
hornet, the history of this ship,

it is intertwined with the history
of the American war in the pacific

in world war ii.

The ship fought in
multiple campaigns

in new Guinea,

in the Philippines,
in iwo jima, saipan.

It had, like,
seven battle stars.

The hornet's most
famous engagement

was the battle of
the philippine sea,

later dubbed the great
marianas Turkey shoot.

The battle of the philippine
sea was quite historic.

The Japanese were
looking for the Americans

and they were in the philippine
sea around the Mariana islands,

and the Japanese
actually spotted the fleet

and the Japanese
actually spotted the fleet

before the Americans had, you
know, discovered the Japanese.

The Japanese launched everything
they had from their own carriers

to try to wipe out the
American carrier fleet.

The hornet was among the ones
sent by American admirals in the pacific

to intercept,

and they had this
phenomenal shoot-down ratio

where 500 Japanese
aircraft shot down

with the loss of something
like 30 American planes.

The Japanese fight and fight,

but they get crushed,

and are never able to significantly
strike with their carriers again.

As the battle in the
pacific theatre raged on,

the hornet's crew worked tirelessly
to press home their advantage.

Life for the crew
during world war ii

was very hectic, very
hot and very busy.

There was something
going on all the time,

especially when you're
in battle conditions -

you were either
preparing for battle,

you were fuelling up ready
to go into another battle,

you were fuelling up ready
to go into another battle,

you were arming up,
you were taking on stores.

There was something
going on 24/7 every day.

And they continued to
deliver knockout blows.

In just 18 months of
combat operations,

the crew of the USS hornet

shot down 668 Japanese planes

and sank over a million
tonnes of Japanese ships.

At the war's end, the
ship was modernised

and sent back out to sea

to support the fight against
Vietnamese communists.

But soon it would be called to
take part in its greatest operation yet.

On July 12, 1969,

the hornet slipped her
moors at Pearl harbor

and embarked on a
new mission in the pacific.

Built for battle, the ship was
pressed into the service of science.

One week later,

Neil Armstrong became the
first man to walk on the moon.

Neil Armstrong became the
first man to walk on the moon.

- (Crackly) It's one
small step for man...

One giant leap for mankind.

God, it looks
beautiful from here.

The Apollo 11 mission was
so important and so symbolic.

The idea of landing
a man on the moon

was something that people
have dreamed of for centuries.

You know, for those of us old
enough to remember watching this,

it was hard enough getting
these guys into space

and then somebody
had to pick 'em up,

and that was the job
of the USS hornet.

The hornet's basically
an airport at sea,

and it's the perfect base of
operations to recover this capsule,

which is gonna come hurtling
out of space and land in the ocean.

23 July, early afternoon...

The hornet waited in the
predesignated splashdown zone,

while the Apollo 11 astronauts
made their final checks.

June '69, captain
seiberlich was in command.

They did like 15 or
16 simulated retrievals,

you know, to make sure
that everything was prepared

and the crew was prepared.

Weeks of planning were
about to be put to the test,

as the eyes of the
world watched on.

But there was a problem.

Top-secret reconnaissance
satellite recon information

held that a storm was threatening
the original splashdown zone,

but they couldn't really tell the
guys at NASA how they knew this.

It was all very
cloak and dagger.

To come down in the
middle of a storm like this

could have torn the parachutes
that were bringing the capsule in

to shreds,

which meant that they would have
hit the water at much too high of speed

and very likely killed
the astronauts on impact.

Fearing catastrophe,

the operative that spotted the
danger circumvented protocol

to alert a chief naval officer
to the peril that lay in wait.

And little-known fact,

the splashdown zone was actually
moved 250 miles at the last minute.

On 24 July, in the final
hours before splashdown,

the hornet raced to
take up its new position.

(Comms chatter)

The crew was on high alert.

Returning astronauts were not
the only visitors they were expecting.

Early in the morning,

president Nixon arrived
aboard marine one.

You know, my past
history in the Navy,

when we had dignitaries
aboard it was all spick and span.

You don't want
anything to go wrong,

so I'm sure, you know,
tensions were high.

It must have been
hell for the skipper

having the president of the united
states, his commander-in-chief,

onboard, looking
over his shoulder.

Meanwhile, the Columbia
capsule hurtled back to earth.

Around 6am they see Columbia
come through the atmosphere

and land in the water.

So the Navy rescue team
came up to the capsule on boats,

began the process of stabilising
it and getting the crew out,

but not before they
handed them Hazmat suits.

Something that most people don't
remember about these lunar missions

is that we had no idea what
bacteria, what pathogens

existed on the moon,

so when these guys came back

they had to be very
strictly quarantined

in case they were
carrying some superbug

that had never been
seen on earth before.

Once the astronauts
arrived on the hornet,

once the astronauts
arrived on the hornet,

they were placed into what would
be their home for the next four days.

This is where the
astronauts were put inside

to where they
could get cleaned up

and get rid of their
contamination suits.

As we enter the trailer,

off to my right we have their
sitting, eating area right in here.

Back in here is
their little kitchenette

and actually one of the first
microwaves ever produced.

So after the astronauts were
placed inside the quarantine facility,

president Nixon came up

and was talking to them
through this window right here.

He waves to them and, you know,
sort of pantomime shaking their hand

and has this little chat
through the glass with them.

The hornet, with its cargo of
returning heroes safely onboard,

then set off for its final
destination of Hawaii.

So the astronauts actually stayed
in this trailer for the whole journey,

so the astronauts actually stayed
in this trailer for the whole journey,

then they were loaded onto
a plane, still in the trailer,

flown to Houston,

where they rode out the
rest of their quarantine

in a larger facility.

And just a year after
participating in this recovery

of the astronauts
from Apollo 11,

the USS hornet is mothballed

and, you know,
basically put on the shelf.

It's ended its useful life, no
longer valuable as a naval asset.

In 1998 the ship was donated to
the aircraft carrier hornet foundation,

its service to
america immortalised.

The USS hornet was
turned into a museum

so that people could come and
learn the story of not only world war ii

and those postwar years

but also this special story
of NASA's Apollo 11 mission.

But also this special story
of NASA's Apollo 11 mission.

As you're moving about the ship,

you're seeing what the
sailors of that period of time -

my period of time, to be exact -

were actually dealing
with, what we lived through,

what the spaces looked like,
how small the passageways were.

The USS hornet
to me means a lot,

and to be a part of it right now

is like going back,
being a kid again.

And I get to talk to people
about the things that the ship did.

I can't express how
much I like to do that

and how much I
feel part of the ship.

The story tells us, you know,
that carriers are basically a way

to achieve a sovereign
piece of American real estate

in the middle of the ocean,
wherever you need it.

You can have the capacity

to pull a space capsule
onboard or recover the crew,

and you can also launch airstrikes
from this thing anywhere, anytime.

As the Navy always says,

"don't piss us off. We can
be there in 24 hours or less."

In the Bulgarian capital, where
few residents have ventured,

is a reminder of a power that
once consumed Eastern Europe.

Sofia is a beautiful city.

It has got activity,
it's got nightlife.

There are no obvious
abandoned buildings here.

Everything looks very well
maintained and even pristine.

Yet in the centre of
this immaculate town,

hidden from view, is the
entrance way to another world.

Here we've got narrow tunnels which
are branching off into the darkness.

At the heart of the labyrinthian
network lies a spartan room.

It's almost like an old
hospital or maybe an asylum.

It's almost like an old
hospital or maybe an asylum.

You have these tiled
walls and these thick doors.

There's these old refrigerators
with big power supplies,

a big metal table.

It's just kind of
creepy and strange.

When I look at this table,

all I can think is this
is a mortuary slab.

Reality is that these tunnels were
used for a kind of dark propaganda

to convince the people to
follow a certain way of life.

Behind me there is a
building of national bank,

and in front of me there is
a national theatre building,

also the building of
ministry of defence.

But the real story, the
hidden story, is underground.

Ivo maev is a journalist

who has spent many years
exploring the city's secret tunnels.

The inconspicuous gateway
to Sofia's netherworld

is located near a
busy marketplace.

It's Christmas mood here

but it's quite
different downstairs.

Very few people know
about this place here.

Here is the past of Bulgaria.

Most of the tunnels
date back to the cold war,

when Bulgaria was
a communist country.

This government ruled over
its people with an iron fist.

Georgi dimitrov was
the leader of Bulgaria.

He was put into place
by the Soviets in 1946

and he was fine with that.

He wanted to be a
communist leader.

He had no problem following
the directives of the Soviets.

Bulgarians readily accepted
dimitrov's dictatorial control,

for they were a population
in dire need of hope.

Bulgaria was a desperately
poor country at the time,

and the people saw communism
as a way out of this grinding poverty

after years of
bloodshed and violence.

The Soviets help Bulgaria
to very rapidly industrialise,

so ordinary Bulgarians

are suddenly experiencing a
very different standard of living

from what went before.

As the country slowly
clambered out of destitution,

it soon faced a new threat,

one that demanded
the tunnel's construction.

Official propaganda says

that the nuclear war between
east and west will happen one day,

that the nuclear war between
east and west will happen one day,

and that's why officially

the government promoted
tunnels and shelters

as places for security,

a safety zone for people.

The reality of who the
tunnels were actually built for

was radically different.

It's believed
that this labyrinth

encompasses nearly 150 miles
of tunnels built as escape routes,

so that important communist
party officials could get away

in case of a nuclear attack.

So all these tunnels
went across the city

and went up into all the
different important buildings -

the bank, different
communist leaders' places.

It was just a really elaborate
way for them to get around

with nobody seeing them.

Yet the tunnels weren't just
escape routes and passageways

for communist dignitaries.

They would go on to serve
a far more macabre purpose.

So dimitrov had been in
power about three years

and went on a trip to the
Soviet union and died there.

It's unclear what happened.

Nobody quite knows
what became of him,

but we know that he died,

and this was a huge blow
to the Bulgarian communists.

The solution of the ruling party

was to transform their
deceased leader into a deity.

Dimitrov is going
to be refrigerated,

embalmed, plasticised,

moisturised

and kept going as long as
Bulgaria remains communist.

It was really important

to keep the name and
the image of dimitrov alive.

To keep the name and
the image of dimitrov alive.

He had become central to this
idea of what communism was.

To house his body, the government
built an extravagant mausoleum.

Just as the pyramids
housed the pharaohs,

this was to be the
eternal home of dimitrov

and the centre of
political beliefs in Bulgaria.

They put inside a big beacon,

very expensive Soviet equipment
for freezing, air-conditioning,

keeping fresh air,
and all other functions,

to be not only a shelter
in case of nuclear war

but also to keep at least one
mummy of the communist gov. Alive.

Located directly
below his shrine

was a secret room that
connected to the vast tunnel system.

And this is the most
interesting place.

Here we can see a
big hydraulic platform,

which is fixed just under
the centre of mausoleum.

So the body of georgi
dimitrov was here

and was pushed up for the
visitors in a special glass box.

You had a seven-man
team of doctors

that did daily inspections
of dimitrov's body.

They even took
care of his clothes.

They had a new suit
made for him regularly

by his own personal tailor.

Everybody in the whole country

is expected to make a pilgrimage to
this communist, godless mausoleum,

as though they were
making a pilgrimage

to an ancient
Christian Saint's grave.

I visited at least three times
when I was in the school.

What I remember -

the cold temperature inside,

the smell of
something like hospital,

and see a body of a person

who I saw only in the book,

inside a glass box.

For the next 40 years,

dimitrov's preserved corpse
remained an ever-present attraction,

but in 1990 his body would be
removed and a scandal uncovered.

It is not unreasonable
to ask the question,

did dimitrov fall
or was he pushed?

Fall of communism officially
was in November 1989.

Fall of communism officially
was in November 1989.

One year later

the first post-communist
government

decided to have official
funeral of georgi dimitrov.

Secretly during the night

his body was transported
to the central graveyard

and was buried there.

However, when laid to rest, his
remains were not entirely intact.

An embalmer had removed
his brain for examination,

as they suspected
Russian foul play

was the real reason
for his untimely death.

He had been called to
the Soviet union by Stalin,

and it's there that he died.

The test proved that dimitrov
was poisoned by Mercury,

because in his
brain and in his hair

were registered more
than 20 times more Mercury

comparing to normal
dose for any human body.

It's one of those mysteries that we
can't prove but makes some sense.

It's one of those mysteries that we
can't prove but makes some sense.

Whatever the truth,

the mausoleum was demolished
after dimitrov's removal

and the tunnels abandoned.

It's been over three decades

since communism's dark
shadow lifted from over Bulgaria.

Ivo still finds that period
painful to remember.

There is no option to have
any romantic memories

from the communist times.

This building was
controversial enough.

A lot of people hate it and
I'm among these people,

because really this place was
the heart of communist propaganda.

It was very important the
building to be demolished.

In north-east england,

the city of hull hides
an extraordinary ruin

in a very ordinary street.

There are houses,
grocery stores, bars,

and then right in
amongst them all

there's something that you
definitely don't expect to see.

This building is in
really bad shape,

so much so

that the whole structure is held
up by steel girders and scaffolding.

Something much more
destructive than just time

has reduced this
place to near rubble.

On the edge of town
is a brutish construction

that at first glance
appears entirely unrelated.

Surrounded by
lush green farmlands

is a series of stout
concrete structures

that seem to serve no
agricultural purpose at all.

And what we're looking
at here is a relic of the idea

that you could send enough
airplanes and drop enough bombs

to break the will of a people.

These rural ruins and the
battered brick shell 6 miles away

are relics of a time

when britain was fighting to
preserve its very existence.

The creeping horror

of the idea of going to sleep in
your bed and never waking up

drove the people
into the countryside.

Well, when I first came in,

it was completely overgrown.

The trees had taken
over really at the back

and it was almost
like a secret garden.

Hilary byers has
fought for decades

to save this site
from being torn down.

She works to ensure the
tragedy of what happened here

is never forgotten.

We're intending to create
memorials around the site

so we shall have
boards with names on,

but we shall also
have interpretation

explaining to people
just what happened here.

In 1914 when this building
was originally constructed,

it served the local
community as a cinema.

It was called the
national picture theatre.

It could seat over 900 people
in its stalls and balcony levels,

and it had a 24-foot screen

that stretched across
the far end of the cinema.

Their advertising material said,

"our chairs are as comfortable
as father's armchair at home."

You know, they were at pains
to tell you this was no fleapit.

You know, they were at pains
to tell you this was no fleapit.

This was... this
was the real deal.

Cinemas like this

provided entertainment
for rich and poor alike.

One of the reasons for
the popularity of the cinema

is that it was so affordable.

Going to see a show
cost under seven cents.

If they were in
the cheaper seats,

they would come into this foyer,

they would go up steps here

or over here

and into the auditorium
through the doors,

and then, of course,

the floor gradually sloped
down towards the screen.

This was a place where people
came to enjoy themselves,

to meet up with
friends and family,

but something happened
to threaten all that.

On 3 September 1939

britain declared war
on Nazi Germany,

marking the start

of the most destructive
conflict in human history.

Of the most destructive
conflict in human history.

One year later

the people of britain felt
the full force of Hitler's wrath.

The Germans sent wave
after wave of bombers

to drop an immense amount of
ordnance all over cities in britain.

The blitz bought
the reality of the war

from mainland Europe to the
very doorstep of the British people.

Hull was no exception,

and its citizens were subjected
to a brutal and sustained attack.

Hull is a really
important English city.

It's industrial, it has a port,

but also hull faces Germany
across the north sea.

Unlike some industrial
places in the United Kingdom,

especially england,

hull is easy to bomb

hull is easy to bomb

because it's easy to get to.

This meant that the city
was also the secondary target

for many other
German bombing raids.

If you're in hull, the luftwaffe
gets you when they're coming,

but they also get you
when they're going.

Ordinary citizens resorted to
sleeping in the surrounding fields

to survive the night, a
practice known as 'trekking'.

They got a decent
night's sleep somewhere,

wherever they could,

and came back into
the city the next day.

They would rather
sleep rough in the country

than get bombed
to death in the city.

And the city responded by aiming
its defences up towards the sky.

Dennis Chapman
is a local historian

that helped rediscover
this site in 2014.

That helped rediscover
this site in 2014.

Where we are now
is in the middle of a...

One of the four
gun emplacements,

so the gun itself, which
was a 3.7 inch gun,

was centrally located here.

Known as station h31,

it was part of a web of
gun batteries around hull

designed to fight back against
relentless luftwaffe attacks.

There should be seven
ammunition recesses,

so that's where the
shells were stored,

and the men would then
collect the appropriate shell

and obviously feed it
into the gun to be fired.

And then in addition
to those recesses,

you've got the two shelters,

which is where the men
would have sheltered

when they weren't on the gun.

On a busy night,
it would be hectic

because they'd all
be working at once,

there'd be information
going out to the guns,

they'd be changing all the time

as the position of the
aircraft would be changing.

But try as they might,

hull's Valiant defenders could
not stop the bombs from falling.

Hull's Valiant defenders could
not stop the bombs from falling.

As much as 95% of its buildings
were damaged or destroyed.

All of Europe suffered
in the second world war,

but the home secretary
at the time said it -

no place in britain
suffered worse than hull.

The national picture theatre
would not escape the carnage,

but it wasn't Hitler
who had the last laugh.

The circumstances around
this building's destruction

are truly bizarre.
You couldn't write it.

On 18 march 1941,

a full house had assembled

to watch one of wartime
britain's most popular films.

You've got a movie theatre

filled with moviegoers
watching 'the great dictator'.

Filled with moviegoers
watching 'the great dictator'.

They're watching
Charlie chaplin,

a working-class English guy,

who is mocking Hitler.

As you can imagine, Hitler and
his buddies weren't amused at all,

but the film was hugely popular

with audiences in the us, the
UK, and other allied countries.

They couldn't get enough of it.

And suddenly the film stops.

The projectionist puts a gel on,

which says that
there's an air raid.

For almost seven hours,
Hitler's fury rained down on hull.

With the air-raid sirens
screaming outside,

the people inside must
have been terrified.

And then a bomb hit.

It sent bricks and debris
flying back through the building

towards the occupants
taking shelter in the foyer.

Towards the occupants
taking shelter in the foyer.

The smoke and screaming
that surrounded them

must have been all-consuming.

So it's quite ironic that that
was the film that was showing

the night that the
cinema was bombed.

A room full of English people

watching Charlie chaplin

playing the character that
is clearly based on Hitler,

and then Hitler takes
a SWAT at them.

He wanted to punish the
British for laughing at him.

In total 91 people lost
their lives that night,

including nine on the
road opposite the cinema.

But by some miracle,
nobody in the cinema died.

The national picture theatre
was destroyed beyond repair

that fateful night,

yet no amount of bombs
could break the people's will

yet no amount of bombs
could break the people's will

or stop them laughing
at Hitler's expense.

Some British people
even look back at this time

with a weird sense of nostalgia.

In england it's
called blitz spirit.

The sentiment being

that if we could survive the
blitz, we can survive anything.

At the conflict's end,

most of britain's destroyed
buildings were slowly torn down

and replaced with
modern structures.

That any of this
cinema still stands

is tribute to the work
of people like hilary.

It's a memorial to everybody,

all the civilians who
died during world war ii,

and to the experience of civilians,
those who survived as well.

On the outskirts
of the Italian capital,

nestled in a wooded glade,

is a structure built in
the name of defiance.

We're in the town of fregene,

a seaside community only
about 20 miles outside of Rome.

In the middle of a pine forest

lies one of the oddest
structures you'll ever see.

It's a feast of geometrical
shapes hidden amongst the trees.

They're bundled together
in a really chaotic way

like a giant game of Tetris.

It seems clear

whoever built this place had a
disregard for the conventional.

The main building is kind
of a study in contradictions.

Clearly they're meant to make
some kind of architectural statement,

clearly they're meant to make
some kind of architectural statement,

so it's not obvious whether
it's a house or a small school

or a substation for
a power company.

It really... It could
be almost anything.

Often structures are
a product of their time.

This one was a reaction.

This building cannot
just be a house.

It has to serve
some kind of function.

This crazy design is somehow
also the proclamation of an ideology.

Raynaldo perugini grew
up in the bizarre structure.

This was a home in which
the normal rules didn't apply.

The project was started by two
architecture professors from Rome,

giuseppe perugini and
his wife uga de plaisant.

They wanted to build

a kind of a homestead
that would reflect the trends

that were moving through
architecture at the time.

Italy in the 1950s was changing.

Everything from music
to cinema and design

was taking on a
new lease of life.

Was taking on a
new lease of life.

The inspiration
was earlier conflict.

Italy's fascist government
collapsed at the end of world war ii,

and in the period that followed

there was a kind of
a countermovement

that wanted to reject fascism

and the kind of monolithic style

that we associate
with fascist architecture.

And there was no better location

for the two architects
to realise their dream

than the glamourous
seaside town of fregene.

Fregene is a
popular coastal town

that came to prominence
in the 1960s and '70s

when it was the centre of
the fashion and cinema worlds.

During this period,

it was a place where Italian
intellectuals and bohemians

would often gather.

The filmmaker fellini
had a house there

the filmmaker fellini
had a house there

and actually shot some
scenes in several of his movies,

including the
film 'la dolce vita'.

Over a period of seven years,

architect giuseppe perugini,
his wife and later their son

built this place as their
eccentric holiday home.

This is casa albero, which
translates simply as 'treehouse'.

And in the mind of perugini,

this was supposed to
be a never-ending house

whose life and energy
could go on forever.

This main building was only
one aspect of the crazy concept.

This main building was only
one aspect of the crazy concept.

Innovation,
experimentation, boldness -

these are the kind of things
that always get people excited,

so this house became the venue
for some of the craziest parties

amongst the rich
Italian bourgeoisie.

Amongst the rich
Italian bourgeoisie.

But casa albero's days
were sadly numbered.

By the mid-1970s the family
used the building less and less.

Then in 1995
giuseppe perugini died,

followed by his
wife nine years later.

After the architect's death,
the house fell into disrepair.

It's been vandalised
with graffiti,

became a squat and the
venue for illegal parties.

That captured the
attention of the media,

who then branded this
structure as abandoned.

Today this building is a
shell of what it once was.

Raynaldo, though, has
big plans to change all that.

He's tirelessly trying to
preserve his family's vision

and turn it into a
cultural hub once again,

and raynaldo is adamant his
father's dream should and will live on.

Captioned by
ai-media ai-media. TV